As is known, patchwork (or quilting) is a sewing technique, very widespread throughout La Rioja, which consists of joining colored scraps of cloth in order to produce different depictions, mosaics or shapes and with them, create quilts, rugs, carpets or other articles, including items of clothing, where there is space for creativity.
Said technique, however, as it has been developed until now, implies a laborious method that, apart from requiring hours of work, requires a high economic investment, and a certain expertise and initial training that, added to the resources invested, can dissuade a significant number of eventual hobbyists and, consequently, future clients for the sector.
Specifically, the current method comprises a first step, aimed at obtaining the material for producing the craft which requires a significant economic payment and time invested, time that is understood as not spent in actually doing the project, since one has to obtain the different fabrics with distinct prints, which are sold, at least, in pieces of fabric that are 25 cm along the width of the fabric (which is usually about 80 or 120 cm), hindering users who need smaller sizes, by forcing them to acquire at least said pieces. Likewise, with the purchase of the distinct fabrics, useless scraps are produced.
Furthermore, it is necessary to acquire the patterns that act as a guide to do the project. These patterns can be obtained in specialized catalogues that include designs or they can be acquired separately in shops in the sector. In any case, this implies a limitation on the variety of the types of mosaics and/or shapes that can be produced.
Once one has the necessary material, then the craft per se can be carried out. In this step, for which cutting and sewing tools are necessary (scissors, cutter, cutting boards, rulers, chalk, etc.), two distinct preparation steps are distinguished: preparing the material and the creation of the project.
Thus, after knowing the design to be executed, the first thing that must be done is choose each of the pieces or figures that will make it up, which are usually one or several shapes that are repeated many times and, after which, the distribution of the distinct fabrics previously obtained for the craft is decided. The shape must be drawn based on the chosen figure or figures, passing over the outline thereof with the pattern, over each chosen fabric, repeating this process as many times as required by the complete design. This process tends to be long and arduous, depending on the number of figures that make up the assembly of the design.
Once the outlines of the shapes are traced in the distinct fabrics, the next step is to start to cut them one by one in order to obtain each of the pieces of fabric with distinct prints that will make up the desired project, having to take care to leave enough of a margin between the seam line and the border of the fabric.
Finally, all the pieces of fabric must be sewn together with the chosen shapes in order to make up the project with the design chosen, there usually being a last step of finishing the project in order to create the blanket, quilt or element that it is for.
All of this process requires, for a person skilled in the art, approximately three hours of work for a craft of about 30×30 cm, and for a person with less knowledge about six hours of work.
Definitively, the current method for carrying out this type of project has great drawbacks: it requires a lot of time in the preparation steps; the economic investment is usually high; a high amount of waste and scraps is produced which implies the loss of a significant portion of the investment; and the variety of designs depends on the availability on the market provided by manufacturers, which limits the creativity of the user.
Therefore, the existence of a product would be desirable that enables the preparation of this type of manual sewing project, preventing the described drawbacks, the development of said product being the main objective of the present invention.
Furthermore, and regarding the current state of the art, it should be noted that the applicant at least is unaware of the existence of any piece of fabric for manual sewing projects or invention for a similar application that has technical and structural characteristics that are the same as or similar to those that this invention claims.